Enjoy a chocolate-inspired Whiskey Del Bac cocktail or other libation while listening to an exciting talk about ancient chocolate-drinking traditions in the Southwest.

This presentation is FREE to attend. The cost of your drinks is on your own.  No RSVP required.

Dr. Barbara Mills will discuss how archaeological research has helped us understand life at Chaco Canyon (ca. A.D. 1000-1125), including connections with Mesoamerica, how chocolate was entwined with social status, and the role of serendipity in archaeology. Her talk is based on the work of Dr. Patricia Crown and Dr. Jeffrey Hurst. Their 2009 paper provided firm evidence of Ancestral Pueblo people consuming chocolate drinks in distinctive pottery vessels at Pueblo Bonito. This touched off a wave of research on cacao and other plants used for ceremonial drinking in the Southwest, and further research by Crown and her colleagues on the architectural and social contexts of the cylinder jars used for frothing chocolate.

Dr. Barbara Mills is a Regents Professor in the School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, specializing in Southwest Archaeology and ceramic analysis. Her work has been published in over 100 articles and book chapters, and she is the author or editor of 10 books, including The Oxford Handbook of Southwest Archaeology (2017).

—
This talk is part of a series entitled, Chaco, Chocolate, and Cups, offered by the Arizona State Museum in collaboration with Whiskey del Bac and Monsoon Chocolate.